Port St. Lucie officials are hoping someone leases the former Digital Domain facility, 10250 S.W. Village Parkway, now that the company is bankrupt.

TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS

The FPRA bought the former site of the St. Anastasia School in Fort Pierce, saying the building had multiple possible uses but until one is found, the property is saved for future generations.

TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS

photos by DEBORAH SILVER/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS
The Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency purchased Cobb's Landing Restaurant, 200 N. Indian River Drive, as a hedge against high-scale redevelopment at the marina.

TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS

The Brooklyn Bridge may not be for sale, but Port St. Lucie City Manager Greg Oravec has a police station he would be willing to let go for the right price.

St. Lucie County and its municipalities have hundreds of parcels under its control, many of them in addition to what is needed for the traditional government functions of roads, utilities or parks. Port St. Lucie alone has about 100 parcels it owns outside of the traditional properties needed to run a city.

The St. Lucie News Tribune looked through scores of records to determine how much property was owned by the various governments and how these properties are used.

While proponents say governments can raise extra revenue by owning land, watchdog groups say its not a good use of taxpayer money and some groups are getting sweetheart deals through $1-a-year lease agreements.

Like many governments throughout the nation and world, Port St. Lucie and St. Lucie County are trying to divest themselves of surplus properties.

St. Lucie County Administrator Faye Outlaw said the county prefers to try to return land back to private ownership, if possible.

"It would certainly help with the tax base," said Outlaw.

The depressed real estate market, however, is making shedding some of these assets difficult.

Outlaw said the county went through the effort some years back to sell various parcels of land, particularly at the airport industrial park, but were not successful in getting any buyers.

From Greek islands to federal office buildings and shuttered police stations in the center of the Treasure Coast, governments worldwide are seeking to shed some of their holdings to raise revenue and cut expenses.

Local governments along the Treasure Coast run or lease out property for airports, golf courses, mobile home parks, marinas, mortuaries, restaurants and various other retail and commercial ventures.

At times, revenue generated from these properties can reduce government's reliance on tax dollars, but at other times the holding can prove a drain on government resources as money is spent to maintain vacant property that's been taken off their tax rolls.

In Washington, D.C., putting unused government buildings up for sale seems to have bipartisan support, although there is debate about what lands should be sold.

Locally, reductions caused by the recession have caused officials to begin looking at jettisoning vacant buildings that sit unused, but still need to be maintained.

In Port St. Lucie, Oravec is seeking to sell the police department's Western Regional Station at 2950 S.W. Rosser Road.

Oravec announced the closure of the station in April, just about eight years after it opened in response to the rapid growth of the city. The closure was part of a major reorganization within the police department.

The 20,786-square-foot building on 3.22 acres could be used for office space, said Oravec. Right now, the empty building is costing the city about $100,000 a year to maintain.

"There has been a lot of interest in it," said Oravec, who has fielded several inquiries for the property.

The costs to maintain empty facilities that may or may not be used in the future is just one of the reasons cited for getting rid of excess property. There is also the ability to put the property back on the tax rolls, said Vero Beach City Manager Jim O'Connor.

Getting rid of such property can be difficult in the current market, however.

In addition to selling the former police station substation, Oravec also now has to find someone to lease the $40 million building built for the Digital Domain Media Group. The 115,000-square-foot building was returned to the city's hands on Dec. 31 with the expiration of the lease once held by the company that filed for bankruptcy in September. The company owed the city $100,000 in back rent at the time of the bankruptcy.

The city also has to determine the future of a site along Westmoreland Boulevard consisting of more than 10 acres with waterfront access. The site next to the Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens once was slated for mixed-use development, said Oravec, but the city staff has since developed a recreational plan for the site.

"We want to see what the council wants," said Oravec. "It's their job to set the vision for the city."

Neighborhood stabilization program

The city also has been involved in acquiring foreclosed property through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The city received $13.5 million in federal money to buy, rehabilitate and then resell the properties.

Martin County Administrator Taryn Kryzda said her county decided against participating in such a program because they didn't want to compete with the private sector. Representatives of some taxpayers' organizations in the Treasure Coast also said the private sector should be the ones involved in acquiring such properties.

Oravec said Port St. Lucie officials are using the money to acquire "the worst of the worst" of these properties that otherwise would serve as a blight on the neighborhood in which they are located. Without the city acquiring the property, Oravec said the neglected properties could drive down the property values of neighboring residences.

In St. Lucie County, the county's biggest holdings are the land in and around the airport. The St. Lucie County International Airport is located within 3,600 acres, about twice as large as the Vero Beach Municipal Airport.

"With the economy it is very difficult to move property," said Outlaw of the county's unsuccessful efforts to get anyone to buy property at the Airport Industrial Park or lease some additional land at the Airport West Commerce Park.

The county at one time was seeking $232,000 for a 2.32-acre parcel and $332,000 for a 3.05-acre parcel at the airport industrial park.

It also is looking for at least $600,000 for 17 parcels within 5.39 acres at the southwest corner of U.S. 1 and 25th Street. Another $230,000 was being asked for 1.17 acres at the southwest corner of U.S. 1 and Euclid Street.

The smaller parcel was viewed as a good location for a gas station and convenience store, while the larger was seen as something that could potentially be used for a storage facility for a commercial or retail operation.

While the airport and the land surrounding it makes up most of the land owned by the county, the county also has significant holdings along the Indian River Lagoon that it leases out for various scientific and cultural purposes.

There is also Mets Stadium — formally known as Digital Domain Park and Tradition Field — the spring training home of the New York Mets, which also is used by minor league and college area teams.

The county, like various other Treasure Coast cities and counties, has various public-purpose leases where nonprofit groups pay a nominal fee for the use of the land.

Olga Kaganova, a senior fellow with the Urban Institute, has written extensively on government's management of property holdings. She said the trend of providing land at cut-rate prices to various nonprofits seems to be growing.

She isn't opposed to some of these ventures, but she does fault the media for not specifying the true financial value of some of these deals.

St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky said the land county has leased out for nominal fees to such nonprofit groups like Harbor Branch and Florida Atlantic University have provided economic returns to the county as well as well as community benefits.

Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency

Many of Fort Pierce's government surplus properties are controlled by a separate organization, the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency. The agency is paid for through incremental rises in tax revenue in the redevelopment district.

Jon Ward, director of the city's Department of Urban Redevelopment, said there is a significant public misconception that Fort Pierce wants to own a lot of land. He said the city would always prefer that property would be owned and developed by the private sector and placed on the tax rolls for the benefit of the general public.

The only time the city is interested in being an owner is when they are called to provide assets for the public benefit not provided by the public sector, such as parks and public roadways, he said.

"The city will, occasionally, make strategic investments in property designed to preserve a sense of place or to underpin the nature of Fort Pierce for future generations," said Ward.

While historic preservation is a term that can be tied to the old St. Anastasia School at 10th Street and Orange Avenue, Ward said that the city "preserves a traditional slice of old Fort Pierce in its ownership of the Little Jim Bridge marina and tackle shop, a place revered by generations of Fort Pierce residents and visitors."

Fort Pierce's redevelopment agency acquired the 1914 St. Anastasia School property in 2006 for $335,000 and invested an additional $900,000 to acquire several acres of the site of the former Catholic Church. Ward said potential uses of the building could be anything from a community center to a business incubator, "but until an appropriate use is identified the building has been saved for future generations."

Ward said the agency made a strategic investment in the Cobbs Landing restaurant at the City Marina to preserve the low scale and intensity of redevelopment at the marina. At the time, he said, four-story condominiums and other developments were being proposed for construction of two flanking sides of the marina.

Ward said, "the fear was that the public space would be dwarfed by the crush of overhanging apartments to the waterfront, completely altering the City experience for visitors."

The former Mana Tiki restaurant was for sale at the time and the redevelopment agency purchased the property for $2.137 million. It has been leased since 2006, operating as Cobb Landing.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY LEASES

The following is a list of lessees, the properties, leases and terms, if available (many of leases have automatic renewal provisions):

Tax exempt groups

Beach Club Colony on the Ocean Inc.: Beach Club Colony, Jensen Beach; $10 per year; expires March 1, 2024

PSL Ski Club: Use of portion of Ski Lake north of Gatlin Boulevard and east of I-95; $225 per year; expires Oct. 31, 2016

Up the Creek with a Paddle: Use of facilities at Woodstork Trail Park; $620 per year

Public Works: Lease of space for the department's stormwater division at the Prineville Street water plant; $2,623 per month

Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency

Five largest property acquisitions:

Three parcels comprising eight acres formerly occupied by the H.D. King Power Plant: Transferred without cost to the agency in 2008 for future redevelopment after environmental cleanup. It is along Indian River Drive in Fort Pierce.

Five-acre site at 1401 N. Second St.: Former plastic extrusion factory acquired by the agency in 2006 for $4.389 million.

Former St. Anastasia School: Several acres between Ninth and 10th streets on Orange Avenue; acquired in 2006 for $335,000 for school and $900,000 for several acres of site of former Catholic Church.

Less than two-acre parcel: 201-125 Fisherman's Wharf; acquired in 2007 for $5.529 million; discussion on redevelopment of the site.

One-acre site of the former Days Inn: 1901 Seaway Drive; acquired in 2009 for $1.4 million; recently transferred to Fort Pierce for use as a right of way for a new roundabout.

Other commercial properties:

Kings Inn on Avenue D, Cobbs Landing Restaurant, and the Lincoln Park Main Street building and lot at Avenue D and Means Court.